DiabloFans

Quote from PantheraOnca

Quote from Crit

Devolving

• No skill choice
• No attribute choice
• No charms despite already having a better system in place (talisman)
• Legalised P2W

The game shouldn't be devolving at all.

You still have skill choice. You can only choose 6/22 skills to use at any given time. I'm sure you'll disagree on this, but I don't plan on switching skills in between fights, and I don't think many others will either. I'll be picking the 6 I want for whatever build I'm deciding to play and I'll make those skills work for all encounters.

Your second and third points are solved by the stat bonuses on runes, and also potentially by the passives that "increase x stat by 20%" (which also combines into build choice).

Your last point fails to hold water. If the matchmaking system is at all successful, you might be able to argue its "pay to play people better than you faster," but from what I know of MMSs, the goal is to get you to fight better rated people (or worse) until your w/l ratio is 50/50. Better gear will just get you fighting either better people with less gear, or similarly skilled people with the same gear.

Now, you might be able to argue that that is unfair to the better-skilled-with-lesser-gear players, but I am of the opinion that after a certain point, skill is harder to come by than gear.

Quote from LaevusArcanum

All credit for Bashiok (and the other forum mods) for dealing with the constant stream of idiocy they get. Not just recently with the RMAH and skill debates, but all the time! It gets to the point where you can see a thread title on the blue tracker and know it's going to say "Please read the forum guidelines <link here>. Locked" or "Please don't create more than one thread on the subject" etc. I have complete respect for anyone that deals with moderating the forums on a regular basis, as I know if I tried it, I'd be fired in a week (maximum).

In terms of community, I agree that it's all gone to crap lately. I used to post on the official D2 forums in the first few years of it being out, and it was quite nice. The odd flame post or troll, but they weren't as often or as bad. I've spent a lot of time on MMO Champion and playing WoW the last few years, and frankly, I'm sick to death of the community that goes with both now.

I agree that it is part down to numbers, but I also think 'leet' speak and memes are also to blame. People latch on to memes and phrases and throw them around as insults with no manners or constructive criticism. I cringe every time I see someone say "bro", "u mad", "l2p" and especially "noob". It seems that trolling, using memes and throwing out insults appears 'cool' to some people now.

So far I'm glad that this small community has few antagonists and seem to on the whole respect each other and their opinions, with more debating than raging and arguing. I've noticed a few (newer) posters that have picked on people and been a little abusive, but they are certainly in the minority, and I hope the mods keep up the good job!